4 Steps: Look Good In Photos

In an episode of Friends, Monica arranges for an engagement photo to be taken of her and Chandler, but the session is a disaster. Chandler can only manage to look like he’s facing a mirror searching for food between his teeth. “I don’t know what it is,” he snaps. “I just can’t take a good picture.”

Join the club. Lots of guys can’t stand photos of themselves, but socially we’re not allowed the same measure of public vanity as women, so we bitch about it less. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t mind taking a good shot now and again, one to represent us proudly on social-networking sites or holiday cards. For that, we offer the following four steps on how to look good in photos.

Before we get started, however, let’s be straight about one thing: expectations. Make sure yours are reasonable. Your goal should be to try and look your best, whatever that might be. If you think you can make a few tweaks to your behavior prior to the camera’s click and come out looking like George Clooney, you’re headed for a little heartbreak.

That being said, here are some tips on how to look good in photos.

step 1

Know your best smile

In that same Friends episode, during the photo shoot, Chandler is trying to contort his mouth into a presentable grin, causing Monica to shout, “What is wrong with your face?” What’s wrong is that he is trying to smile with his mouth; if he can manage this, he seems to think, the agreeable photo will follow.

While almost every smile starts at the mouth, a genuine smile will cause a ripple across the face until the eyes convey our feelings to the lens. If you’re in a bad mood and have no reason to laugh or smile, when someone points a lens your way, your smile won’t resonate beyond your mouth. If other people in the picture are genuinely smiling, prepare for your frozen-faced grin to be immortalized.

So, to look good in photos, look through previous pictures of yourself and determine what smile works best. Try to remember the context, and learn how to mimic the smile so you can bust it out every time a camera appears. You don’t like the exposed gums? Do a three-quarter smile. You like the one where you’re laughing, oblivious to the camera? For the next picture, find a reason to laugh.

step 2

Get out of direct light

Evidently, you think you have some flaws best kept out of pictures — otherwise you wouldn’t loathe getting your picture taken. This step to look good in photos involves ensuring that you’re not the victim of any harsh, direct light. If you think your forehead is too big now, wait until direct light gets a hold of it. The glare back to the lens will most certainly do you no favors.